Self-adhesive ready-made bandage for immobilizing the wrist

ABSTRACT

Ready-made bandage with a self-adhesive coating on at least one side, for immobilizing the wrist, characterized in that at least three short reins ( 41, 43, 45 ) are arranged on one long side of an oblong strip ( 1 ), a second strip ( 2 ) is arranged on the opposite long side and encloses an angle of between 10° and 150° with the oblong strip ( 1 ), and a third strip ( 3 ) is arranged on one of the long sides of the second strip ( 2 ) and encloses an angle of between 30° and 150° with the second strip ( 2 ).

The invention relates to a ready-made bandage with a self-adhesivecoating on one side, for immobilizing the wrist.

The functional dressing technique called taping is a treatment methodfor prevention and therapy of injuries, diseases and lesions of thelocomotor apparatus. The aim of taping is to purposefully simulate thecapsular ligament structures and in so doing to achieve selectivesupport and stabilizing.

The actual tape dressing is applied in strips made up of preferablynon-elastic self-adhesive tapes, so-called reins, or in conjunction withlow-stretch elastic self-adhesive tapes. It protects, supports andrelieves vulnerable, injured or damaged parts of a functional unit. Itpermits selective loading within the pain-free area of movement, butprevents extreme or painful movements.

However, the application of such dressings requires expert skill andexperience and for this reason cannot generally be done by lay personswith no taping experience.

As regards the wrist, which is often exposed to very considerablemechanical stress, especially when performing sporting activities, whichstress can lead to distortions and contusions, but also to straining ofthe ligaments in the wrist, the expert nevertheless requires aready-made bandage which is of a simple construction and at the sametime can be applied without problems, and which, especially in the caseof minor injuries, has a positive influence on the healing process.

However, such a ready-made bandage should also be able to be applied bythe lay person, affording the latter an economic and less time-intensiveaid by means of the ready-made bandage.

The object of the invention was therefore to make available a ready-madebandage which, because of its construction, its material and itsproperties, is suitable for supporting the healing process in injuriesof the wrist, and which in addition can be easily applied by the user.

This object is achieved by means of a ready-made bandage according toclaim 1.

Accordingly, the ready-made bandage with a self-adhesive coating on atleast one side, for immobilizing the wrist, is comprised of an oblongstrip with at least three short reins arranged on one long side, and asecond strip arranged on the opposite long side and enclosing an angleof between 10° and 150° with the oblong strip.

Moreover, a third strip is arranged on one of the long sides of thesecond strip and encloses an angle of between 30° and 150° with thesecond strip.

The short reins are preferably arranged at an angle of 90° to the oblongstrip, it having proven particularly advantageous for the reins to befive in number.

In a further preferred embodiment, the oblong strip is about 12 cm to 30cm long and 2 cm to 7 cm wide, the second strip is about 5 to 15 cm longand 2 to 6 cm wide, the third strip is about 4 to 12 cm long and 2 cm to6 cm wide, and the reins are about 2 to 10 cm long and 2 cm to 6 cmwide.

The dimensions of the ready-made bandage are of course adapted to thesize of the hand on which the ready-made bandage is being applied. Forthe average adult hand, the individual parts of the ready-made bandagehave the following sizes:

The oblong strip is 18 cm long and 4 cm wide.

The second strip is 10 cm long and 4 cm wide.

The third strip is 8 cm long and 4 cm wide.

The reins are 6 cm long and 4 cm wide.

All the strips and reins can additionally also have rounded comers inorder to reduce the risk of unintentional detachment of the adheredready-made bandage.

It has proven particularly advantageous for cuttings or recesses to bepresent at the points where the oblong strip, the second strip, thethird strip and/or the reins meet. These cuttings prevent the ready-madebandage from tearing at the points which have the highest loading,particularly during application. Alternatively, the recesses increasethe flexibility of the ready-made bandage, so that alternativelyapplication is made easier.

Again preferably, the self-adhesive ready-made bandage according to theinvention is comprised of a non-elastic woven fabric or knitted fabric.Elastic or plastic components in the longitudinal direction ortransverse direction of the support material can sometimes alsoadvantageously influence user comfort. Furthermore, nonwovens or foamsor paper can also be used if these have sufficient strength.

The support material can preferably be cotton and can additionally havea maximum tensile force of not less than 50 N/cm and a maximum tensileforce extension of less than 20%.

On the side applied to the skin, the ready-made bandage is coated withone of the known good self-adhesive compositions based on rubber(preferably a zinc rubber composition) or synthetic polymers.

The self-adhesive composition can include solvent, dispersion/emulsionsystems, but 100% self-adhesive composition systems can also be used.The compositions advantageously have other properties such as good skincompatibility or permeability to air and water vapour.

The self-adhesive composition is applied at about 100 g/m².

Prior to the bandage being used, the adhesive layer is covered with ananti-adhesive sheet material, for example siliconized paper, which canadditionally be perforated for better use, or a foil of plastic.

The material can in this case be divided up into a plurality of sectionsin order to facilitate application of the ready-made bandage throughsuccessive detachment of the individual sections.

The self-adhesive ready-made bandage can be used universally forimmobilizing the wrist.

The blank of the ready-made bandage naturally depends on which hand theready-made bandage is intended for. Accordingly, there are twomirror-symmetrical embodiments of the ready-made bandage according tothe invention.

The ready-made bandage can also be applied on the palmar or the dorsalsurface of the hand, so that the blank has to be made separatelydepending on the application.

A particularly advantageous embodiment of the ready-made bandageaccording to the invention, and its use, are explained in greater detailwith reference to the figure described hereinbelow.

FIG. 1 shows the bandage in its preferred embodiment. The ready-madebandage is here made up of several sections. The central section isformed by an oblong strip (1). A total of five short and rectangularlyshaped reins (41, 42, 43, 44, 45) adjoin one of the long sides of theoblong strip (1) at right angles.

On the opposite long side of the oblong strip (1), and specifically atthe edge to the transverse side, the oblong strip (1) widens in the formof a right-angled triangle. The second strip (2) adjoins the hypotenuseof the said triangle, and this second strip (2) likewise has anapproximately rectangular shape.

Moreover, a third rectangularly shaped strip (3) is formed on the secondstrip (2) in such a way that the oblong strip (1), the second strip (2)and the third strip (3) touch at one point.

The angle α between the third strip (3) and the oblong strip (1) is 45°,and the angle β between the second strip (2) and the third strip (3) is90°.

To apply the bandage, the oblong strip (1) is applied on the palmarsurface at the attachment of the middle finger, so that the oblong strip(1) runs over the wrist as far as the lower arm. The second strip (2) isthen attached so that it extends from the metacarpal area, between thumband index finger, to the dorsal surface of the hand. The third strip (3)runs over the ball of the thumb to the dorsal surface of the hand.

Finally, the five reins (41, 42, 43, 44, 45) are guided in a circleround the hand, the wrist and the forearm.

In this way, the mobility of the wrist is restricted almost to completeimmobilization. Still greater restriction can be achieved by means ofadditional reins being attached round the hand, the wrist and theforearm or by means of further anchoring strips reinforcing thedressing.

What is claimed is:
 1. Ready-made wrist bandage with a self-adhesivecoating on at least one side, for immobilizing the wrist wherein atleast three short reins are arranged on one long side of an oblongstrip, a second strip is arranged on the opposite long side and enclosesan angle of between 10° and 150° with the oblong strip, and a thirdstrip is arranged on one of the long sides of the second strip andencloses and angle of between 30° and 150° with the second strip. 2.Self-adhesive ready-made wrist bandage according to claim 1 wherein thereins are arranged at an angle of 90° to the oblong strip. 3.Self-adhesive ready-made wrist bandage according to claim 1, whereinfive reins are arranged on said one side of said oblong strip. 4.Self-adhesive ready-made wrist bandage according to claim 3, wherein theoblong strip is about 12 to 30 cm long and 2 cm to 7 cm wide, the secondstrip is about 5 cm to 15 cm long and 2 cm to 6 cm wide, and the reinsare about 2 to 10 cm long and 2 cm to 6 cm wide.
 5. Self-adhesiveready-made wrist bandage according to claim 4, wherein the reins haveidentical dimensions.
 6. Self-adhesive ready-made wrist bandageaccording to claim 1, wherein cuttings are present at the points wherethe oblong strip and the second strip meet; where the third strip andthe second strip meet; and where the reins and the oblong strip meet. 7.Self-adhesive ready-made wrist bandage according to claim 1, wherein theready-made bandage is comprised of a non-elastic support materialselected from the group consisting of nonwovens, papers, foams, wovenfabrics and knitted fabrics.
 8. Self-adhesive ready-made wrist bandageaccording to claim 7, wherein said bandage is comprised of a nonwovenfabric and the nonwoven fabric is cotton and has a maximum tensile forceof not less than 50 N/cm and a maximum tensile force extension of lessthan 20%.
 9. Self-adhesive ready-made wrist bandage according to claim1, wherein the ready-made bandage is covered, on its self-adhesive side,with anti-adhesive material.
 10. A method for immobilizing a wrist of ahuman hand, which comprises applying a wrist bandage of claim 1 to saidwrist.